I'M A WINNER

There were thousands and thousands of what struck me as idiots walking in the blazing Florida sun to buy nails, hub caps, old clothes that were somebody else’s trash. At first, most unfortunately, I was forced to ride 45 minutes to get to the insanity ahead. Oh, how I complained. Oh, how I bitched to the driver, my visiting nephew, Tony. He had to listen because I was giving directions from Map Quest. This is the first time in 25 years I’ve gone there, and the last, for sure. In the back seat of my car sat Tony’s wife, Sophia. She slept right thru our long drive, not giving a damn if we got lost or had an accident, both of which almost happened.

Parking was worse than trying to climb to the moon on Jacob’s ladder. Row after row of clunkers, rusted Chevies, an occasional Buick, were headlight to taillight as far as I could see. I begged, ‘Let’s leave.’ ‘Yeah,’ said Sophia,’and where do you think you can turn around? Weare captured dobermans and I’m ready to fight! This was a bad idea.’ And so we were stuck in a line inching our way to the $2 entrance- ‘NO REFUND’ sign. Not so terrible. It only took us 20 minutes and finally Tony managed to squeeze my almost new car into a place that we needed corsets in order to get out of the car doors, about 4" on one side and 6" on the other. Thank heavens none of us had big bellies or we might have died of heat prostration before we were found.

It was agreed I was the smart one, said, ‘Don’t go. It isn’t a place I want to go.’ My brain worked when I had seen dark storm clouds before we left Ft. Lauderdale and I took a beach umbrella with me so we could all stay dry. It worked even better than body lotions in the sun. The long walk Sophia and I had to take to the inside freak show pissed me off. Merchandise stacked, piled, spread out with barely room for a hawker to entice a shopper to slow down, ‘Lookee, lookee, look at this real fake diamond watch, only 8 bucks.’ Right there, as I took a moment to see if the passerby bit, I saw a small round red table, not in great shape, with 3 unused vacant chairs, and without as much as a ‘howdy do,’ sat down in one. Turning towards my nephew, I strongly told him to take Sophia and go. ‘I am not moving from this spot. Just tell me when you will be back for me. I’ll be right here. ‘One hour.’ Oh, lord, I thought, an hour in this conglamoration of merchants, loud music, fast walkers, idlers, coke poppin’ customers, I’ll die. ‘OK. My watch shows noon, on the dot. Be here one (or before) or I’ll drive myself home and leave you two to never be seen again.’ They go.

It took no more than five minutes when my day lit up like the sun lights the sky after a violent storm and the rainbow has gone. From my folding chair I watched customers look at children’s shoes and dresseslined up against the wall. Posted prices were cheap. Being from another planet, I still understood the plight of these people, their need for everything while their pockets were empty. Sad, very sad.

An attractive young lady young lady pushing her daughter in a stroller stopped to look at the display of white sandals. The mother took shoe after shoe from the rack, giving her child the right to select her own. Naturally, the child wanted all. ‘Show me the one you like best and you can try it on. That’s pretty, Honey. How does it fit?’ Did the lady ask my opinion? No. However, I gave it. ‘That looks too big to me. Look at all the room in the back. It’s going to fall off her tiny feet when she runs.’ ‘I think you are right. I’ll get a smaller size.’ That’s when my like for little Janet turned into love. She was so adorable. Light skinned, fine, curly hair, a face like a baby doll and the little white sandals clopping as she showed me the shoes, made me forget everything but her. ‘They’re too big. Let Mommie try a smaller pair. OK?’ Then she spotted another pair and wanted to try those, showed them to me and I oohed and ahed. We bonded.

‘How old are you, Cutie?’ She took my hand and spread my index finger and middle finger apart, making a ‘V’. ‘Two, two!’ I showed her how old I was by opening and closing my fists 8 ½ times. Of course, she had no idea what I meant. We played knocking sounds on the metal table and I was the happy one, just talking to the mother. She and I had much to talk about, Janet, our our free spirits. I no longer cared if my nephew and Sophia never came back.

Next to the shoe rack were fluffy little dresses that would become flat, limp, after one wash. On the end of the bottom row my eyeballs were attracted to an adorable blue printed skirt with white rick a rack along the bottom. I grabbed the wondering salesgirl as she flew past my chair, ‘Will that blue skirt fit this little girl?’ ‘No, M’am. It’s too small.’ Leaving my chair would have been a hardship for me so I didn’t go inside the small cubicle of a shop. Instead I handed the mother a five dollar bill for the shoes. Don’t laugh at my small generosity, please. I know it was small, even pitiful, yet I felt like Daddy Warbucks giving Orphan Annie the moon. My id was glowing. The mother didn’t want to take the money but I convinced her.

I can now tell you the mother’s name was Marcie. Her cell phone rang. Marcie told Janet her daddy was on the phone and wanted to talk to her. Now remember, she was only two and the first thing she told her daddy was, ‘I’m talking to Grandma!’ Well, that was the pink and white icing on my day.

Marcie and I exchanged email addresses because I told her I write short stories . Janet and she were going to be one with all identities, places altered. ‘So, Marcie,’ I said as my nephew and Sophia appeared, ‘I’ll send it to you. Print it, save it for her. Someday she just may pull up a memory of a Grandma who lived in a shoe and had so many she didn’t know what to do and gave a white pair of sandals and a warm hug to a little girl named Janet.